You've probably seen him somewhere by now. On television. In person, perhaps. In photographs. You recognize the face, but the uniform still looks strange and there's been an undeniable change in his body.

	Jordan has a bigger body than you may remember, but will it hurt him?

Michael Jordan is back in his newest incarnation as point forward, franchise reviver and role model for the Washington Wizards. While he has lost none of his steely determination or insatiable will to win, there are obvious differences between the 38-year-old Jordan and the one we last saw pushing off in Utah to make the championship-winning hoop in 1998.

He's listed at 218 pounds, but the weight has been, shall we say, redistributed. The upper body is significantly bigger, due in part to repeated workouts with his trainer, Tim Grover, and also due to the inequities of age and life. That's where extra pounds can congregate. The Celtics' Eric Williams said he thought Jordan looked a little puffy, but quickly added that, within the next 20 games, "you're going to see the real deal."

The physical changes and the stylistic changes are only a small part of the new Jordan, however. Equally critical is the mental aspect of this comeback. This is as much of a tutorial for him as it is an itch that needs to be scratched. Forget Air Jordan. Forget Floor Jordan, as John Thompson calls him. This is Jedi Jordan.

"I think he really wanted to inspire his club," said Jordan's former coach, Phil Jackson. "The Wizards are playing with new inspiration and I think that was his plan all along, to try and teach these young men something about intensity and competitiveness from actual hands-on experience."

The older and wiser Jordan makes his return Tuesday night in Madison Square Garden with a team that is still raw, callow and, if you believe Jordan's new coach, way too passive. Michael? He's fine. He thinks he's ahead of schedule and will probably be at full tilt boogie in another few weeks.

He plays three different positions for the Wizards, depending on the opponent. He's comfortable with all of them, be it handling the ball as the point guard or posting up as a small forward and reading the defenses.

	“	Everything now is just easy to him. When I say that, I mean his movement with the ball and away from the ball. He limits his movement. He knows he's not as quick as he used to be, so everything he does is kind of in a box. He doesn't move too far out of the box. And when he gets into a zone, he's as tough to stop as ever. ”
		— Dallas' Finley on MJ

The shooting is still coming, particularly the three-pointers. He still has his trademark fallaway and he showed throughout the exhibition season that he can still create well off the dribble, head faking opponents to the rafters. That's all still there and it looks every bit as natural as before.

"Everything now is just easy to him," said Dallas' Michael Finley, who worked out with Jordan in Chicago over the summer. "When I say that, I mean his movement with the ball and away from the ball. He limits his movement. He knows he's not as quick as he used to be, so everything he does is kind of in a box. He doesn't move too far out of the box. And when he gets into a zone, he's as tough to stop as ever."

Or, as the Celtics' Antoine Walker noted, "the new rules are going to favor guys who have a mid-range game. And he has the greatest mid-range game of all time."

Clearly, Jordan still relishes the mano-a-mano part of the job. He and Paul Pierce went at it in Washington's last exhibition game, with Jordan noting that the two would resume things on Nov. 7 in Boston. That was exhibition fun. It was a throwback to all those summer scrimmages at Hoops. There will be plenty of those in a long season and at least one head coach feels Jordan will be more than able to handle all the young Turks.

"I don't think Michael has to worry about matching up to anybody. I think he's still at the top of the mountain," said Miami coach Pat Riley. "I think he's smarter, stronger, and once he gets in top condition and if he's healthy, I don't think anybody will be able to replace him."

But in any Q & A with Jordan, he inevitably journeys to the real challenge of this comeback -- which has nothing to with getting best of Vince Carter. It's about getting the best out of his clueless teammates. This is where Jordan's Jedi persona comes on hard and strong. He continually talks about mentoring Courtney Alexander, Kwame Brown, Richard Hamilton and the other young players on the team. He sees this as much a part of the job description as scoring, rebounding and passing.

"We have a very young team that, right now, is very nervous," Jordan said after the Wizards' exhibition finale. "It's going to take time. We have to learn to walk before we start to run. And we haven't learned to walk yet. It's tough to get these young guys on the same page."

Jordan's hand-picked coach, Doug Collins, moaned about what he saw as an utter lack of competitiveness among his troops. Collins said he finds it disturbing, but not surprising. He's been there before. Jordan talked about how the kids need to relax, slow down, and concentrate. At some point, he's hoping, the light will go on and the players will understand that they have a resource on their team unlike any other.

"He's a tremendous competitor and one of the brightest players I've ever coached against," said Bucks coach George Karl. "He understands angles, he understands situations, he understands matchups sometimes better than the coach he's being coached by. His competitiveness has never changed.

"He's an assassin. He tricks you." Karl went on.

"He tries to act like he's your friend and he isn't your friend, he wants to kill you and destroy you. He has done that when you play poker with him, when you play golf with him or when you play blackjack with him. He wants to win and he's probably the greatest competitor I've ever played against and coached against. I've been with him on the golf course, where he's the same as when there's 10 seconds left in the fourth quarter."

Jordan will get his points. He was among the leading scorers in the exhibition season and he will probably be the same when the games start to count. That might almost be automatic. It's also the easy part.

The harder, time-consuming, frustrating role will be the Jedi role. The sooner the young Wizards understand what they have, the sooner they'll be a team worth seeing. Until then, Michael won't even have to mention his supporting cast. He'll be flying solo.

Peter May, who covers the NBA for the Boston Globe, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.